Learning Something From Books, Before Their Texts Even Begin

Learning Something From Books, Before Their Texts Even Begin
If the Kindle and its competitors ultimately do vanquish the printed book, stories will keep going, but inscriptions, as we know them, will not. Inky, intimate, idiosyncratic — a good inscription is the bonus in a used book, the plot before the plot, a hint of relationships beyond the ones imagined by the volume’s author. One can see some creative entrepreneur pitching Kindle right now with this concept: one-of-a-kind inscriptions, sold along with the book for a small premium, to lend it that history-imbued, sentimental feeling.